Delaware Water Gap park operations are at risk by sequester

Friday

Feb 22, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and agencies like the Social Security Administration are among federal operations in the Poconos bracing for billions in automatic spending cuts March 1, unless Congress takes preventive action.

DAVID PIERCE

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and agencies like the Social Security Administration are among federal operations in the Poconos bracing for billions in automatic spending cuts March 1, unless Congress takes preventive action.

Inaction from Congress could cut into the tourism season for the National Park Service.

The park service has about 90 permanent and 75 seasonal workers at Delaware Water Gap, a two-state, 70,000-acre park with a $9.5 million annual budget.

An internal park service memo has directed park service units to delay final seasonal hiring this year pending resolution of the budget impasse. Officials have been told to expect a 5 percent budget cut under sequestration.

Local park officials referred inquiries to National Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson, who said the public should expect reduced services at all park facilities.

"Visitors would see reduced hours of operation for visitor centers, shorter seasons, and possibly closing of camping, hiking and other recreational areas when there is insufficient staff to ensure the protection of visitors, employees, and historic, cultural and natural resources," Olson said.

"The reductions would limit the National Park Service's ability to sustain a full complement of seasonal employees needed for interpretive programs, maintenance, law enforcement and other visitor services as we are preparing for the busy summer season."

Social Security payments and other retirement and disability benefits are exempt from the sequester cuts, but Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said it will result in the loss of 5,000 agency jobs through attrition and the termination of 1,500 temporary workers.

Social Security has 16 employees at its Smithfield Township office, according to a 2008 survey by the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey.

"If sequestration occurs, we estimate that visitors to our field offices could wait almost 30 minutes to see a representative, and callers to our 800 number would wait almost 10 minutes for us to answer," Astrue told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Feb. 7.

"The pending levels of initial disability claims would rise by over 140,000 claims, and on average, applicants will have to wait about two weeks longer for a decision on an initial disability claim and nearly a month longer for a disability hearing decision."

Tobyhanna Depot, which employs about 5,400 workers maintaining military communications and electronics equipment, would lose about $309 million, or one-third of its funding, this year alone, if the so-called sequester goes into effect, according to a recent U.S. Army impact report.

Tobyhanna spokeswoman Jackie Boucher said Thursday officials are still working out details of the fiscal impact.

All told, there could be $109 billion in across-the-board cuts — half in military programs — by Sept. 30. If left unchecked, the automatic cuts will total $1.2 trillion by 2021.

Agencies and departments are hesitant to spell out the impact, but thousands could lose their jobs, others would work reduced hours and it would take much longer, if at all, for residents to receive services.

Congress, which remains in recess as the sequestration deadline looms, should reconvene and immediately repeal the sequester, said U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, whose district includes part of Monroe County.

"The outrageous thing is we're all off this week," said Cartwright, who took office last month, long after Congress enacted the automatic spending cuts. "We're doing work in our district, but we should be at our desks with only days to go before sequester."

The federal government's debt ratio to gross domestic product was much worse in 1946, at 122 percent, than the 105 percent debt-to-GDP ratio today, he added.

Other federal offices with a presence in the Poconos include the U.S Forest Service, who manages the Grey Towers National Historic Site; U.S. Geological Survey, with a station in Milford and Health and Human Services.